


come to sea with me, where we can be free

by siojo



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Amber Lead Syndrome mention, Background Character Death, Bittersweet Ending, Hopeful Ending, Implied/Referenced Cannibalism, Lies, M/M, Secrets, Sirens, Transformation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2020-02-28 14:46:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18758578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/siojo/pseuds/siojo
Summary: Sirens eat people, it's something that every one knows, which is why Fleevance has been ordering people to report sightings of them since they arrived almost six months ago. They've been circling the far side of the island, never coming to where Law lives, at least not that anyone's reported.Law doesn't want to report Luffy, after all, Luffy promised that he wasn't going to eat him.





	come to sea with me, where we can be free

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is actually an expansion of a tumblr prompt (https://wordsdrippinginink.tumblr.com/post/177192269169/prompts-hell-yeah-how-about-literally-anything) that Shishiswordsman requested a while ago, I hope you enjoy the expansion!
> 
>  
> 
> There is mentions of cannibalism and death, as is know for sirens, but none of those are named characters, just the random background characters as expected. The bittersweet ending has everything to do with emotions and nothing to do with anyone important dying.

“I can hear you, you know. Please stop trying to lure me to my death with your singing,” Law states refusing to look up from his notes. He’s supposed to be completing a surgery tomorrow and he doesn’t have time to die, he’ll reconsider the proposition tomorrow, but only after he’s completed his job.

“Aw, Traffy’s no fun.”

Law looks up, raising an eyebrow as he catches sight of the siren that’s been stalking the docks around Fleevance for the last six months, “Luffy, I thought you agreed to stop trying to eat me.”

“I wouldn’t! Maybe? If I was really, really hungry, but I’m not! Ace caught someone fishing last night and they were so big! And Sabo caught a sea king too!” Luffy says, pulling himself up enough to lean on the dock, arms crossed to hold his weight. “We don’t eat people often.”

“Sirens eat humans,” Law reminds Luffy, because Luffy had just admitted to it, setting his notes to the side and making sure that none of the pages would be pulled free by the breeze. “You have to and you keep showing up to lure me into the ocean.”

“Because Ace says that you have to eat what you love. Marco says that’s not how it works, but Marco’s weird. He’s not even really a siren.”

Law frowns in confusion, “I thought you said that everyone you knew were sirens.”

“Not really a siren is still a siren,” Luffy states, shrugging when Law raises an eyebrow. “How’d ya think more sirens are made? Sirens are real rare and im-morptal to a point. We don’t have babies,” he pauses for a long moment. “Least Gramps never said where babies come from and Ace says that it’s different than how humans have ‘em.”

“If children are rare, how do you expand your species?” Law demands, because that’s interesting. He’s heard that creatures, like sirens and whatever else the Blues are hiding, had few children but he didn’t think they meant it like this. “Do you not have family groups?”

“You can have kids,” Luffy insists. “Ace’s mom and dad were sirens and my dad is too! But Gramps says that it can wait until I’m older. Even if I’m an adult now,” he adds quickly, like he thinks that Law will think of him as a child. “But we can turn people into sirens.”

“Like how a werewolf can turn others?”

“Werewolf?” Luffy tips his head to the side curiously, the, what Law can only call, fins on his neck moving back and forth over what Law assumed were gills.

Law fumbles for an explanation for a moment, brain still lingering on the idea that someone could be made into a siren, transformed into a siren, “They pass on their infection through biting their victim.”

“Oh, that’s almost similar? We don’t bite them if we wanna make ‘em family or a mate. Biting is for food, but we can take people and make them like us. That’s how Sabo joined us, my dad brought him home. An’ Koala says that she lived on land once. Even Marco is something else, but also a siren now.”

“I see.”

Luffy slides back into the water, someone must be approaching, “An’ I’m not.”

“Not what?” Law asks in confusion, mind still focusing on the puzzle of turning someone into a siren.

“Tryin’ to kill you, I’m not,” Luffy lowers himself further into the water, smile almost hidden by how murky the water is by the docks, a barely seen flash of teeth that are too sharp. “I don’t wanna kill you.”

“You don’t?”

Luffy laughs, eyes wide and glittering with something dangerous, “Traffy is smart, he’ll figure it out,” his tail shifts, pushing him backwards from the pier. “See you tomorrow!”

Law stares after him in confusion, because Luffy didn’t want to eat him, like Law had thought from the first moment that he had struck up a conversation with the creature that had appeared by the docks. But that didn’t explain why Luffy kept returning to sing for-

“Big brother?” Lami asks curiously, startling Law back from the edge that Luffy had vanished from. “There’s still sirens close by, you should be more careful. They’ll eat you up, mama says so.”

“No one has seen one around here,” Law reminds Lami, because he hasn’t reported Luffy, fo all that he should, still trying to turn the sentence over in his head and understand it. He should have reported Luffy, but yet. “They’ve all been on the other side of Fleevance.”

Lami hums, “The ladies at the market say that sirens don’t feed where they’re courting, because they might eat someone that’s important.”

“Courting?”

“Uh-huh, the ladies in town said that sirens don’t court people just other sirens, but there was a pirate,” Lami pauses, as if she’s trying to remember what she heard. “A really old one, he says that sirens court anyone that captures their interests and if that person loses it, they get eaten. If they keep it, the siren makes them into a siren too, to be together forever.”

“A fairytale,” Law mutters as he stands, but his gaze wanders back to the ocean, because Luffy said he wasn’t trying to eat Law. He’s said it repeatedly that he wasn’t there to eat Law, but he was trying to lure Law away. Could he-?

Law shakes his head, pushing the thought from his mind, “Come on, we can get ice cream on the way home. I want some extra sleep tonight.”

“Ice cream!”

“What kind do you want?” Law asks, letting Lami talk excitedly, his mind returning to the puzzle of Luffy and this new idea about courting, because Law can’t figure out what Luffy had meant before, but he wants to.

“Would you go?” Lami asks softly as they reach the ice cream shop, her eyes wide and curious. “If a siren fell in love with you, would you go with them?”

“I don’t know. It would mean leaving you and our family.”

Lami hums, nodding in agreement as she hurries ahead to join the line with the money that Law presses into her hands, giving him time to steal a table, his chin resting on the palm of his hand as he watches her.

He loves them, loves his family and would do anything for them, but Law sometimes, more often the older he had gotten, wonders if they even need him. They would miss him, he knows that they would, but they would move on. They wouldn’t lose themselves if Law left and never came back.

He thinks of Luffy, eyes wide and curious as he smiles like he knows something that Law doesn’t, and can’t help but think that even if it was just a ploy to lure him to his death, it would almost be worth it.

* * *

“Still hanging around then?” Law asks curiously, laying on his back at the same dock that he had last seen Luffy at two days ago, listening to the sound of something breach the water and knowing with utmost certainty what, who, it was. “I thought you would have left by now.”

Luffy grins, a flash of too sharp teeth, leaning over him, dripping water without a care when it slides over Law's nose. "Why would I leave, Traffy?"

"You've been here for almost seven months, I thought your kind migrated?"

"We do, if we stay somewhere too long then we'll eat too many and no one will come in the water," Luffy agrees, his tail curled around one of the posts on the deck, securing him in place so he can use his arms.

"But not here."

Luffy hums, tilting his head and his eyes bright with something that Law knows isn't human or kind before it fades, "I'm waiting for something."

"Something?" Law repeats, eyebrow arching in confusion.

"Something. And it works for Ace and Marco, they got a baby."

"Had a baby?" Law tries, because he doesn't know if the terms are correct. But Luffy isn't human and he said they could turn people into sirens somehow. Law also isn't sure on how babies come about from sirens naturally, so for all he knows they had a baby the way most species do.

"No, they found her. She's little and learning still, so while I wait, the rest of the family is willing to stay here. Gramps moved on, but he's old."

"Old?"

Luffy nods excitedly, "we don't stop growing! The older we are the bigger we are! Gramps is huge," he holds his arms apart and frowns, wiggling them slightly before nodding. "His head is this big!"

Law stares wordlessly at the distance between Luffy's arms, feeling terror settle deep in his stomach at the thought of a creature, a monster, that big lurking under the surface of the water. It means that Luffy's gramps was big enough to take a ship by himself and likely devour it all. Even Luffy, smaller than Law where his human limbs are concerned, is taller than him, easily able to wrap several times around a skiff or rowboat.

"He likes marine ships," Luffy adds, like it means nothing as he drops his arms, smile still too wide. Law wonders distantly when he stopped being scared by his teeth. "He says that they did something to him and he will never forgive them for it."

"Did something?"

Luffy shrugs, uninterested, Law knows from experience, "What is Traffy doing here? You know there's sirens lurking."

"I like spending time with you," Law admits, smirking when Luffy's face lights up, as he knew it would. "And everyone knows there hasn't been a siren sighted on this side of the island."

"You mean you haven't reported me," Luffy says knowingly, one of his hands moving to slide through Law's hair.

The nails are careful on his scalp, avoiding pushing too hard or deep to keep from breaking the skin, though the way it slides between the webbing between is strange, but increasingly familiar. Law relaxes as Luffy grows more bold, tips of the fingers brushing along the tops of his ears.

"They haven't gained a point."

"I know, I like them like this," Luffy says humming softly.

It's always the same song, either hummed or sung, but Law has never heard him sing anything else. He knows that he must, since the stories say that sirens cater their songs, but he can't imagine him doing another.

"Do you like it here?"

Law yawns, blinking slowly as Luffy tilts his head, "Like it here?"

"Yeah, Traffy only talks about his little sister and his mom and his dad. Does Traffy not have friends?"

"Hard to make friends when people don't like you."

Law isn't sure what he expects, but it's not for Luffy to frown, one of his claws going too sharp as it slides over his ear, cutting it with ease.

"Traffy doesn't have friends?"

"I have Bepo," which is almost a lie. Bepo is on the move with a hospital based ship and has less time to talk than Law does. Bepo would miss him if he left but it wouldn't linger. "He's away right now."

"Bepo?"

"My best friend, he's a mink."

Luffy sticks his tongue out in disgust, "Minks don't taste good. Like eating," he pauses looking for a comparison and shrugging when none comes to mind. "Yuck."

"So descriptive," Law laughs, pausing when he hears something. Luffy's hearing is better and this dock is out of the way and hidden by warehouses, but it's still close enough for someone to find. To learn he's been lying about the siren lingering on this side of Fleevance. "What?"

Luffy is gone before Law can finish his sentence, vanishing below the water without a ripple as Lami rounds the corner, her eyes wide and her face red.

"Lami?"

"I thought," she shifts from foot to foot, nervous and unsettled in a way that Law has never seen her before. "I thought I heard someone else here with you."

“Who would be here with me?”

The silence that lingers is uncomfortable, only made worse by the way Lami watches him, like she’s searching for something that she can’t find. Which isn’t fair, Lami has always been liked and wanted. Law has worked hard to push past the jealousy that ate away at his stomach when he saw her out with friends. Law should be allowed this.

“No one, I’m sorry,” Lami ducks her head and looks away. “I shouldn’t have listened.”

“Listened?”

“Everyone says that you’ve been taken in, by the sirens. I know you said that there’s none, that you haven’t seen any, but-”

“Lami, why would I lie about sirens?”

He’s deflecting, trying to make sure she doesn’t ask because he’s always been poor at lying to her and he will lie. Luffy is his friend, someone that cares about Law and wants to spend time with him even when Law can’t do anything for him. It’s refreshing.

“You’re right. I don’t know why I listened,” she laughs, distant and false, her eyes still watching him as if she can see through all the things that Law’s lied about in the last few months. “We should head home for lunch.”

“Fine,” Law groans, standing up and brushing his hand over his ear as he adjusts his hat, a smear of blood coming away. He would have to come up with an explanation for that, before Lami guessed it was a siren at fault. After all, Luffy hadn’t meant to hurt him, it wouldn’t do for him to get caught for something so foolish.

* * *

“What are you humming,” Lami asks finally, dropping her head down onto her textbooks because she can’t focus anymore. The fear of finals lingering in the near future is more present than the fear of the sirens that have been circling for months. “You’ve been humming it for weeks.”

“It’s something I heard recently,” Law answers distantly, his hands steady as he stitches two pieces of orange skin together as Lami tips her head enough to watch him, but he’s always been too good at it. “Shouldn’t you be studying?”

“My brain hurts, why can’t exams be on hold? We might not have gotten sightings of sirens here, but that could change! I’m too scared to study.”

Law frowns, looking up from his work, “Yesterday you said that life was too short to live in fear. Have you changed your mind?”

“That was before they announced finals, Law! Now I have to worry about studying and all the other things that come with the curfew. I can’t even study with my friends so we complain together, since curfew is so early.”

“You were in support of the curfew.”

Lami pouts, “I was before we found out that the sirens weren’t even here. Why do we have to suffer when there’s not been a single sighting, Law? None of them have come to our side of the island.”

“Yes, I know,” Law frowns harder, flexing his fingers as he picks the skins back up. “Are you going to be staring at me all night? Because, if so, I’m going to move to my room to work. It’s been a long day and I want to relax.”

“Sorry,” Lami mutters, ducking her head to watch Law from over the top of her maths book. She doesn’t remember him being this snappish before, not even when he was sick to death of everyone and everything.

Law hums, the same song that he won’t share with her, as he slowly practices keeping his stitches neat and small, tilting his head as he worked. Lami glances away as she spots the scab curling over the top of his ear, something horrible coiling in her stomach, because she knows that Law had lied about how he had gotten it.

Just like she knows that Law is lying about talking to himself on the dock that he had taken over years ago, since it wasn’t in use anyway. She’s not stupid, no matter what Law might think. She wasn’t a prodigy like him, but she knew enough. Enough to know that Law had to have someone else there to talk to when she had found him, the new cut on the top of his ear bleeding.

“You know, studying usually means that you turn the pages,” Law says, smiling softly. “Unless you’re going to sit there and mope.”

“I’m pouting,” Lami groans, draping herself dramatically across the top of the book. “I can’t believe you didn’t notice.”

Law hums, smiling easily as she pouts at him, “I’m sure.”

“Hey Law,” Lami pauses, biting the inside of her cheek as he raises an eyebrow and waits for her to continue. “Will you ever tell me what was in that letter that mom gave you when we were really little?”

“You don’t even remember what happened when we were little.”

He’s mostly right. Lami remembers there were lots of people in and out of the hospital, that she had been sick and it hurt, and that sometimes mom had looked at them and looked ready to cry. But something had happened, the history books didn’t say anything and none of the adults so much as whispered about it. Even the children old enough to remember didn’t talk about it.

“That doesn’t mean I know nothing.”

Law tips his head in acknowledgement, “If you want to know, you can ask mom.”

“Mom won’t tell me anything. Just like she keeps hiding the papers so that I can’t see who’s gone missing. She doesn’t want me to know who the sirens have killed.”

“Not all of them are the sirens, how can they? Rumor says that they only need human flesh every few weeks.”

“Rumor also says that they kill to create children,” Lami counters, resting her chin on her palm as she watches him. “Just like rumor says that you’re emotionless.”

“No one says that, about the children,” Law says putting his work down and scrubbing a hand over his face, looking tired before he looks at her. “Why did you insist that I needed to work here while you studied?”

“I need company, Law. If I don’t have company, I’ll die.”

Law sighs, “Lami, I’m tired and need at least a few minutes to myself after work. It’s been a long day, so if you’re done-”

“I just wanted to spend time together,” Lami pouts. “We don’t do that often enough anymore.”

“Fine, fine. But Lami, please let me have tomorrow. I have enough going on in my life that I can’t sit here and listen to you while I try to decompress,” he closes his eyes and Lami can almost see how hard it is for him to stay sitting there. “Are you actually going to study?”

“Nope,” she pops the word, just like she knows Law hates, because if he’s focused on here and now, maybe he won’t think about whatever, whoever, she’s keeping him from. “Can we have ice cream?”

“Only if you convince mom to pay for it,” Law answers, pushing his chair back from the table and throwing away the skin. “I’m going to get my shoes.”

“Do we have enough time?”

“You want to go out for ice cream and you didn’t think about the curfew?”

“Shut up, I love ice cream. Fine, I’m going to talk to mom, but you better be ready to go so we can make it home in time,” Lami orders springing up from the table and bouncing out the door to linger just out of sight for a moment.

Law is humming again, his voice soft and carrying in a way that doesn’t make sense for how the echo in their home works. She wonders if it’s supposed to sound like she’s already lost him.

* * *

“Where are you going?” Lami asks closing her book as Law pulls his hat from the coat rack, the question making something go tight in Law’s chest. “Can I come with you?”

“I would like to go alone,” Law answers, digging through the umbrella stand for one that wasn’t full of holes, since it was already dark and dismal outside. It was sure to pour down before Law wanted to return home. “I have some books to pick up.”

“I’ll come too!”

Law bites the inside of his cheek, ignoring the sharp tang of blood on his tongue as he tries to count to ten, his temper a hair’s breadth from snapping, “It’s just the library, Lami.”

“I need more books anyway,” she dismisses, tugging on her shoes and bouncing to her feet.

It’s the look on her face, Law thinks later, the way she looks at him like she needs to protect him coupled with a week of her dogging his footsteps like a second shadow, that sets off his temper. There’s been less than a moment alone for him since Lami stumbled up to the dock and heard something, she had to have heard something. The itch of too much attention and time and the absolute need to be left alone.

“I want to be left alone,” his voice is sharper than he thought it would be. “Please.”

“But Law-”

“Fucking what, Lami? What? You haven’t spent this much time with me since you were ten, you wanted me to leave you alone, so do me a favor and leave me alone,” he doesn’t bother grabbing an umbrella, his teeth aching at the need scream. “I’ll be home later.”

He slams the door shut on her shout, ignoring his name as he passes someone, he thinks it’s his father, too angry to try and talk to someone else who’s seen Lami’s actions and told Law that she just wanted to spend time with him.

Law doesn’t slow down at the library, taking the most round about way to the dock that he always met Luffy at, collapsing onto the wood and trailing his fingers through the water. It’s quiet, enough to let Law breathe, the tension in his shoulders vanishing with the longer the silence stayed.

He doesn’t startle when fingers, thicker than his and with just the hint of scales slide over his, smiling when he hears Luffy’s humming, just loud enough to mix with the water lapping at the concrete and wood around them.

“Thank you,” Law mutters, turning his head to see Luffy just peeking at him from the edge of the dock. “Sorry, I- I meant to come back sooner, but my sister-” he can’t finish his sentence, gritting his teeth.

Luffy makes a soft sound, something that sounds like the dolphin pods that his parents had dragged them out to see when they were young, still flexing and stretching Law’s fingers. Law doesn’t know when he realized Luffy was easier to be around than his own family, but this is better. Luffy doesn’t want anything, at least nothing that Law can find.

“Why do you stay here?” Luffy asks curiously, staying below the deck, hiding from anyone who might come past. Which doesn’t mean that Law likes it, Luffy is bright and half of what he says is explained by expression.

“What do you mean?”

“Traffy always says that he doesn’t have friends and that he’s lonely. Why does Traffy stay then?”

Law sighs, “Because my family is here.”

The answer feels off, like he doesn’t mean it anymore and Law doesn’t know how he feels about that. His family has always been the reason that he stayed on Fleevance after graduating and earning a position in the hospital, but he’s older now and his family isn’t everything important to him anymore. Not that he doesn’t love them, Law does, but they’ve grown apart and it’s always hard to deal with them because he’s not sure how to.

“Ace left for a while when he came of age,” Luffy states, flipping Law’s hand over and tracing the lines on it. “He said he needed to explore and see what being himself meant. Gramps says that everyone needs that, it’s how I made my friends. But they supported us.”

“Mom doesn’t want me to leave,” Law admits softly. Their biggest fight had been in the days and weeks before Bepo had left, because Law had been invited to join the ship and he had wanted to. “I was sick, very sick, when I was young and it worries her.”

Luffy shakes his head, “That doesn’t mean that Traffy should have to listen. Traffy’s an adult, that means that he can do what he wants without having his parents or sister stop him.”

“What if they don’t love me after?”

“I don’t really remember Ace’s dad, he died when I was little, but he told me something once and it’s one of the clearest memories that I have of him.”

Law raises an eyebrow at the non-sequitur, watching him through the slats in the dock, Luffy’s teeth shining even in the darkness as the clouds grew darker and thunder rumbled. But he doesn’t say anything, waiting to see if Luffy continued.

“If your family doesn’t love you, even if they don’t approve of your choices, then it’s not your fault,” Luffy pauses. “He said there’s exemptions, like if you kill someone, or do something horrible. But the point stands.”

“He sounds like a smart man.”

“His parents didn’t approve of him becoming a siren when his wife courted him. They thought since he was human, she was just going to eat him up. But we would never lie about courting, Traffy.”

“You don’t lie about much,” Law yawns, smiling when Luffy finally lifts his head up over the deck. “Sirens do court humans then.”

Luffy nods, tilting his head to the side, “Did Traffy not know? We court anyone that catches our interest, but,” he shrugs, loose and easy as Law closes his eyes. “It’s hardest to get our attention. The older we are, the more boring that things can be.”

“Am I interesting?”

“Always,” Luffy mutters, fingers warm on his cheek. “Traffy is always interesting.”

Law’s too tired to consider that statement, taking a deep breath as Luffy starts to sing again, the words liting and soft in a language that he’s never heard before. It sounds beautiful, he wonders distantly if Luffy will teach it to him.

* * *

Law shivers, regretting falling asleep on the dock as Luffy sung to him, since only an hour later he had woken up to the downpour that had been threatening to flood the main streets since morning. By the time he had made it home, dazed from the sudden wake up and Luffy’s almost subdued reaction to his hurried goodbye, he had been soaked through.

The looks that Lami had been shooting him for the last couple of hours had proven to be too much, forcing him to make up an excuse to leave again, taking refuge in the almost empty library, since it was still too wet to return to his dock.

But the new medical texts are just as dry as the older ones and Law can’t bring himself to concentrate on them, not when he keeps replaying Luffy’s words in his head. Because Luffy thought he was interesting, always interesting.

“Court anyone we find interesting,” Law mutters, pushing his chair back without a concern for the screech that the wood made against the floor, checking the index for the legends and myths, since that was all that could be found on sirens.

There’s more than a few, since no one was sure what was fact or fiction about sirens and even fewer were taken for study. It depended on the library and the preference of the librarian if the legends and myths were regulated as such or moved to the section about sirens. Which was always more confusing, Law found, picking up the first book he could find.

The pictures are what draw him in, distant shots from high in the air of creatures that are swimming under ships, sometimes triple the length of them, even if the facts listed are wrong. Luffy has never had any issue telling Law about himself, about sirens, when prompted. He might not know everything, but he does know that sirens don’t eat just humans nor do they separate from their family as soon as they’re old enough. Travelling and returning is different, Law knows setting the book back on the shelf and pulling out another one.

It’s focused on a myth, of a marine, back before this version of the marines had come around, who had vanished one day only to reappear years later to lure his old crew to their deaths.  There’s a note at the end that some scholars connected this legend with another about a siren who swore revenge after the marines killed someone that they cared about, but it doesn’t talk about ‘interesting’.

Law doesn’t know what ‘interesting’ means, because he is interesting, Luffy had said, but that didn’t mean that it was meant in the same sense as courting. Interesting could mean anything and Law wants some kind of answer.

The next myth is more interesting. A noble child being drowned by his cousin for his title, since that was the only way the cousin could get it. There’s years that pass, the cousin haunted by the voice and vision of the child, always lurking as soon as the cousin came close to the water. A hallucination, the cousin was said to have written, a demon come to haunt me. But in the end, the night before the title would be passed on to the cousin, he vanished. Rumor said that the child’s revenge had reshaped him, made him into a monster so that he could not be killed again.

“Delightful,” Law mutters, closing the book and sliding it back in place, his nose wrinkling. He had forgotten that human books wouldn’t talk about sirens the way that Law would want. After all, sirens ate humans. But there had to be something.

But all he can find is facts that Luffy’s already proven wrong, stories of revenge or death, or pictures taken to cause terror. None of it is about sirens calling someone interesting, about friends who sing, the way that Law’s siren does.

He puts the books back and leaves, taking just long enough to ensure his umbrella is up before hurrying home, something strange settling in his chest, because he wants to know more and there’s nothing that will give that to him.

“Law could have been talking to himself.”

Law pauses for a moment, sliding his shoes off and setting them on the bottom row of the rack to dry, moving towards the kitchen as his dad sighs.

“Law thinks that talking to himself is inefficient.”

“Maybe he made a friend,” his mom sounds exasperated.

Lami’s voice is tired, “Mom, Law’s only friend is Bepo and you were the one that said he wasn’t allowed to go to sea with him.”

“He could make more.”

Law closes his eyes and leans back against the wall, counting slowly to himself because he knows where this was going to go. Eventually Lami would convince them that it had to be a siren, which wasn’t wrong, that she had heard Law talking to and then there would be questions. And he’s too tired to deal with questions, all he wants to do is to fall back onto his dock and listen to the sound of the waves and the barely there sounds of Luffy singing to him.

“We could ask him?”

“I’m back!” Law shouts, pushing himself upright and ignoring the ache that settles in his chest when they jump. “Did I miss something?”

* * *

“Traffy doesn’t normally come out at night,” Luffy says curiously, watching him as Law sits at the edge of the dock, shivering as his feet go under water. It feels like ice as his toes almost go numb in an attempt to adjust. “Did something happen?”

Law sighs, falling back on the dock and turning to watch Luffy instead of the stars, “Lami thinks she knows what’s happening here, that I’m being lured to my death by a siren. Apparently sirens only appear to people when it’s time to lure them to their watery graves and for absolutely no other reasons..”

Luffy doesn’t say anything for a long moment, but Law can see him, the night sky bright in the water around him as he watches Law. It had been unsettling the first time, when he had come here for time alone, time to study more for a surgery, to find something with too sharp teeth and wide eyes watching him. Now it’s different, because it’s Luffy and Law knows him.

“Would you ever want that?”

“You said you weren’t trying to lure me to my death,” Law’s tone is supposed to be teasing, but it’s firmer. Like he’s trying to prove to Luffy that he remembers his promise. “I trust you.”

“Traffy is being obtuse,” Luffy pouts, moving closer, part of his tail coiling loosely around one of Law’s ankles. “Being lured away, would Traffy ever want that?”

“Is it really luring if I go willingly?”

Luffy laughs, loud and uncaring because he’s one of the most dangerous things in the water. His smile is impossibly wide when he looks back at Law, but it’s not terrifying, because this is Luffy. Luffy who has repeatedly said he wouldn’t eat Law. Law knows it’s stupid, that anyone who knew about Luffy would say that he was lying, but Law thinks that he would always trust Luffy. How can he not?

“Would you like to hear my song?”

“You know I don’t understand it,” Law doesn’t disagree. He’s started humming the song to himself when he’s nervous, when everything is too much. It’s calming, reminds him of these times, the two of them on this dock without the rest of the world.

“You will,” Luffy assures, one more sharp smile before he takes a breath. “Come to sea with me, where we can be free and eventually be what we always wished to be.”

The words echo, seeming to come from everywhere at once as Luffy keeps singing, his voice just as beautiful as it has always been. Supernaturally so.

“Will you?” Luffy asks when he finishes, his hand curling around Law’s wrist, not hard enough to hold or grab, but solid and firm.

“Will I?”

“Come to sea with me?”

Law’s heart falters, just a moment of what might be understanding crossing his thoughts, “Luffy, what does interesting mean?”

“It means attention grabbing and keeping. That there’s something more keeping focus. A chance at forever,” Luffy answers, sliding back down into the water, tail releasing his ankle as he lingers, eyes just above the surface. “It means that I would love you and keep you, all you have to do is come to sea with me.”

“Luffy,” Law swallows hard. “That sounds more like a marriage proposal than friendship.”

“And if it’s both?”

Law nods, “And if I asked for one day to think on it?”

“Traffy can have as long as he needs,” Luffy whispers, moving away from the dock, his eyes vast and dark for a moment, but not upset. “But you’ll think on it?”

“I will.”

Luffy nods, smiling with the same ease as always even though he had all but asked Law to run away with him, to give up his humanity, “Good night, Traffy. Think about it, I’ll be here if you need me.”

Law watches him vanish beneath the surface with barely a ripple, before falling back on the dock again, his heart beating rabbit fast against his chest, because that, that wasn’t what he had expected when Luffy had called him interesting. He hadn’t, couldn’t, have expected this when he had decided not to report the sighting of a siren on this side of the island.

He pushes himself upright as the sun rises, making his way home and collapsing into his bed after setting his alarm for noon. He needed to think about this, really think about it, and that meant actually sleeping. He made the worst choices when he hadn’t slept and this, this whole situation needed rational thought.

Even if Law had already made up his mind.

* * *

“You’re leaving Fleevance aren’t you?” Bepo interrupts Law, frowning when the snail looks startled, but not confused. “You’re not hiding it well, Law.”

“It’s really that obvious?”

“Only if they know you,” Bepo agrees, leaning his head against his paw as he watches the snail sigh. “And I do know you, better than most. Why, you stayed there even after you got the chance to join the medical ship that I joined.”

The snail shrugs, just a bare twitch when he knows that Law always shrugs in such a way that someone can see him and know the action for what it is, “It’s hard to explain. I,” he pauses and the snail looks away from him. “I don’t know-”

“You can tell me anything you know, we’re best friends.”

“I hate when you pull that,” Law sighs and the snail closes it’s eyes for a long minute as Law falls silent. “You’re my best friend too, even if I don’t think you’re going to approve. I don’t think anyone will approve.”

Bepo raises an eyebrow, “You didn’t kill someone, did you?”

“Does it count if I didn’t help prevent someone else from commiting a murder?”

“I think I need more details here, Law. How did you avoid preventing death? You’re a doctor, your job is attempting to save people.”

The snail shifts and Bepo doesn’t know what to make of it, he’s always been better at understanding Law when he could see him and all the small movements that give away his thoughts, “Have you talked to Lami recently? I know it’s been a while since we had more than a few minutes to actually talk and it’s mostly about medical situations.”

“Lami’s only talked about sirens recently. Since you have had a,” Bepo pauses, his eyebrow rising as he watches the snail closely. “Law?”

“His name is Luffy and he’s nicer to me than most of the people that I’ve known my whole life, even if he’s eating people,” Law states, stubborn as he always is. Bepo can imagine him lifting his chin as he always does when he refuses to back down from something. “I, is it-?”

Bepo sighs, rubbing a paw over his face, because he knows that tone. It means that Law’s already made up his mind, no matter what he said, “Tell me about him?”

“You want to spend what could be our last conversation talking about a siren?”

“Sirens don’t eat minks, why would this be our last conversation?”

Law snorts, smiling softly, “You mean that?”

“I don’t have to approve of what you’re doing with your life just because we’re friends,” Bepo states unsure how he feels about this. Law looks happy and that’s always been more important to him than what people might think. Even if he doesn’t think it’s the best thing. “So tell me.”

“He’s interesting and he thinks I’m interesting. He doesn’t know half of what I say and he still listens and asks questions. He never makes me feel like I shouldn’t be myself and he, I don’t know, he’s important.”

Bepo nods, “You know, if you go with him, you can’t come back. It’s probably permanent. And it means that you’ll have to eat people. I know that you’re happy, but have you considered that?”

“The changing process would also adjust my morals enough to allow me to overcome that. Luffy has several family members who were human once. They, they haven’t had any issues.”

“And your family?”

“They would never accept me, this. They,” the snail looks away, guilt this time, Bepo thinks distantly. “I can’t tell them, Bepo. At least not until after I leave. I’m, I have letters for them. I know what people will say about me, but it’s better this way.”

“I think that if you’re happy, then I accept what you’re doing. I won’t be happy about it, because there’s a reason that sirens are called monsters, Law. But I care about you enough to support you.”

Law sighs, “And you know I’m too stubborn to change my mind, even if you attempted to do it just now because that’s how you are?”

“I wasn’t trying to be subtle.”

“I know you weren’t,” Law sighs, the snail’s mouth twitches into what might have been a frown. “I’ll miss you most.”

“You’re not going to visit?”

“I didn’t think you would want me to. I’m not exactly going to be the person you remember anymore. Luffy might not have told me all the details, but from the stories, they change.”

Bepo bites his tongue, “And you’re okay with that. Aren’t you?”

“No. Yes? I don’t know, Bepo. I can’t stay, it’s killing me. I’m dying slowly here and even if I leave on a ship, I’m always going to come back. I would have to come back because my family is here,” the snail shakes it’s head. “I love them, but they don’t need me.”

“You better come to visit me. Just,” Bepo can’t break down now, not when Law is still on the snail with him. Because sirens are the monsters that humans fear most and Bepo’s friend will never be the same after, but he will still miss Law. Even if Law is still going to be around. “Don’t eat any of my crew.”

Law laughs and Bepo pretends that the snail isn’t tearing up, “I promise.”

If, after they’ve hung up, Bepo spends the rest of the day locked in his room looking at the pictures he had of his friend and trying not to cry, no one needed to know. He was allowed to mourn the Law he knew, even if he would still be alive afterwards it didn't mean that he would remain the same.

* * *

“Going out now,” Lami asks, leaning over the arm of the couch as she holds her book up in the air above her, even though her eyes are closed. “I thought you had plans to sleep all day?”

Law snorts, ignoring the way his heart throbbed painfully as he watches her for the last time, “I went to sleep late last night, doing research on a surgery later this week. There a few more books that I’m hoping will give me an advantage, so I’m headed back to the library. Need anything?”

“Ice cream?” Lami asks hopefully.

“I thought we agreed no more ice cream this week. You know since we had mom and dad pay for our last trip to get some.”

“Fine,” she drops her book onto her face with a groan. “I guess I don’t need anything then. You’ll be back by curfew, right?”

“Aren’t I always?” Law answers, hoping that Lami won’t call him out for deflecting. If she thought he was agreeing, it wouldn’t be until the bells rang and she realized he wasn’t in the house that she would panic. “You better not drool on that.”

“I’m going to drench it in my saliva and leave it on your bed.”

“That sounds disgusting,” their mom states, raising an eyebrow as she looks at Lami before smiling at Law. “Will you be home for dinner? Your father wants to try out something he thinks you might be able to add to your list.”

Law nods, feeling the lump in his throat grow when she turns back to Lami, lifting the book off of her face to talk to her, “I’ll be off.”

“Keep safe!” Lami shouts after him, trying to steal the book back from their mom with increasingly sad noises. “And have fun.”

Law closes the door behind him but doesn’t linger. He wants to. For a minute, all Law wants to do is turn around and go back inside to spend the night with his family. To stay and forget about Luffy’s offer, but he can’t. He wants to go and nothing is holding him here besides them, his family. He loves them, for everything they did before and after he was sick, but he can’t stand how they treat him. It’s suffocating, even Lami wasn’t treated the same and she had been ill too, they all had.

The back alleys are less crowded at this time of day, the schools long since out and most jobs over. Which means that Law reaches the dock long before he’s ready, all three of the envelopes like lead in his pocket as he pulls of his shoes and dangles his feet into the water.

“Traffy said a day,” Luffy smiles and Law doesn’t know when his sudden appearances stopped shocking him. “It’s not been a day yet. Did you have questions? Ace said that you might.”

“No, I,” Law shakes his head, taking a deep breath. “I don’t have any questions. At least none about that. I just, why me?”

Luffy blinks, eyes wide and innocent, “Why you?”

“You have to have your pick of who you can lure away. I’m sure that some people would give anything to be taken in by a siren, to be part of their family. What made me so special?”

“When I was little, we used to come here more often,” Luffy admits slowly. “There was a sickness that came through, gramps thought it would wipe out the island, but my dad wanted to stick around a bit. So, I went exploring.”

“Amber Lead Syndrome. The sickness,” Law elaborates. “It’s from an accumulation of certain minerals in the system, it’s not a virus or a bacteria, so the only way to get it is to use Amber Lead or be born to parents who used it often. My parents found a way to counteract the chemicals, that’s why it didn’t get worse.”

“I just knew they were sick, hard to find out about Amber Lead when you don’t need to know about it,” Luffy shrugs fluidly. “I went exploring and I met someone. They were sick and didn’t really know what I was. And since I was little, I wasn’t allowed to find people to eat without my dad or gramps. We were friends, they were nice and smart and weren’t scared of me.”

Law hums, sliding his fingers through Luffy’s hair as he leans against Law’s knee, “You were lonely?”

“Sometimes. I had Ace and Sabo, but I was littler than them, so it could be lonely. But I made a friend, we couldn’t stay of course, but it was nice.”

“And?”

“And I came back and looked for them, the last time we were here.”

“Were they?”

“They’re okay,” Luffy laughs. “Because they’re Traffy.”

“Oh.”

Luffy nods, grinning easily, “You were little and scared because you were sick, but you didn’t care that I was suppose to be a monster. It was nice and you didn’t remember me this time, but you were still nice. Never treated me like I was a monster,” Law smiles back Luffy tips his head to the side, leaning into Law’s touch. “That’s why I like you.”

“You’re not a person, you can’t be held to those standards. Even wolves are monsters to rabbits, and the relationship between humans and sirens are almost similar,” Law sighs, reaching into one of his pockets for the letters and the paperweight he had stuffed into it earlier.

“Not really,” Luffy says with a flash of too sharp teeth as he moves away to let Law arrange things on the dock.

Law is grateful for it. He can’t say goodbye to them, not really, not when his family would do anything to stop him, but he can leave them something. Let them know that he’s not going to die, which is the most comfort they might get.

“Sing to me?” Law asks when he’s done, closing his eyes and taking a breath. It’s not the end, he know that, because he won’t be alone. “Lure me away.”

Luffy laughs, reaching his hand out for Law’s as he sings, “Come to sea with me.”


End file.
